our company

At our core are the values of passion, respect, integrity, discipline and excellence; values that underpin our behaviour and attitude.

We believe in real access to our partners, but not at the exclusion of others in the firm. Many of our clients are SME businesses, and the person with whom we work is a shareholder in that business. We share the challenges of running a business today with employment, technology, forecasting and compliance as issues that affect your business in the short and long term.

We continue our commitment to understanding your businesses and helping you to find solutions to the issues that affect profitability and business value.

Walker Wayland Advantage is an independent firm of chartered accountants, taxation consultants, business advisors and auditors focused on delivering clear business advice and creative options that generate tangible benefits for you. We are Melbourne-based, but as part of the Walker Wayland Australasia and BKR International group of accountants, we can assist where you need us while drawing on a vast international skill set and knowledge base when required.

Personal

We believe in building relationships that matter. We take the time to understand you and your unique circumstances, so the advice we provide is the advice you need. We have been doing this since before our staff were working here. In fact, with a history dating back to 1925, we’ve been doing it since before any of our team were born.

It is part of our ethos and guides our operations, behaviour, and recruitment decisions.

Proactive

There is nothing worse than financial shock in your business or personal life, and we believe in being on the front foot with the advice we provide. We remain on top of legislative changes that may impact you regarding compliance or other requirements, and we are always looking for better ways or tools to help you.

Flexible

You can’t necessarily fit a square peg into a round hole; the same applies to our services. It is our job to work out a set of systems and processes that work for you and us. We see our relationship as a partnership that adds value.

Big Firm Experience/Small Firm Relationships

We are proud of the skills our staff bring to the table, and many have worked at the big accounting firms before joining us. What they gain at our firm isthe ability to form relationships with our clients, which makes work more enjoyable and meaningful and delivers a better outcome for you. It is never about a cookie cutting process that turns out perfectly shaped cookies every time. We build relationships because we want to give you the best cookies for you.

Our Timeline

Our history as an accounting firm dates back to the 1920s in Melbourne, but as with many accounting firms, our name has changed over time. From Muprhy& Horsfall in the 1920s to Walker Wayland Advantage, we have retained some traditional values while embracing change and technology when we can see the benefits.

We love our past and its history, but we are not frightened of looking to an innovative future.

1925–Murphy& Horsfall ->2018 – Walker Wayland Advantage

Walker Wayland Australasia

We are proud to carry Walker Wayland as part of our name, reflecting our position as its longest-serving Melbourne firm. Walker Wayland Australasia Limited is an association of independent professional firms in Australia and New Zealand. Through working together and forming a strong community across the association, its member firms are uniquely equipped to deliver a range of services relevant to organisations doing business in the region.

• Approx $A100 million in gross revenue
• 20 member firms
• 35 offices
• More than 470 staff and 80 partners

Walker Wayland Australasia is rated 15th in the AFR’s Top 100 accounting firms in 2021 and 13th in The Sunday Star Times’ Top 30 accounting firms in New Zealand in 2019.

BKR International

Further expanding our reach is our membership with BKR International.

As one of the top 10 global accounting associations, BKR International represents the combined strength of more than 150 independent accounting and business advisory firms in nearly 600 offices and over 80 countries.

Large enough to offer a full range of services yet small enough to provide personal service and connections, BKR member firms are committed to delivering superior client service worldwide.

Our involvement with BKR is extensive and active. Martin Phelan is the Vice-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Board, creating great reach and connections within this valuable community.

ISO Quality Certified

We sought quality certification because it was good for our clients and us. Not many accounting firms have followed this path because of its complexities, and we believe we are the only full-service accounting firm in Australia to be quality-certified for our entire operation.

The benefits are:

• Facilitating better decision-making by providing a complete view of the impact of the quality, environmental and occupational health & safety programs on business performance.
• Identifying areas where there may be overlapping responsibilities or duplication of effort.
• Helping to develop objectives and plans that are not competing or contradictory and are consistent with business needs.
• Allowing better planning and allocation of available resources, leading to improved workflow and operational efficiencies.
• Promoting harmonised methods and processes for the overall ‘business management’ system.
• Reducing the amount of documentation, providing all relevant information in one place, resulting in happier employees who are not overwhelmed by multiple cross-references.
• Raising awareness of and promoting the interaction and interrelation of Quality, Environmental, and Health & Safety systems with the company’s operational and business processes.
• Facilitating the development of coordinated solutions to problems identified in different work areas.
• Promoting a more business-focused approach to the audit process.
• Consolidating audit results for all the management systems.

​ISO Quality Management Principles

• Customer focus: The primary focus of quality management is to meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.
• Leadership: Leaders at all levels establish unity of purpose and direction and create conditions in which people are engaged in achieving the organisation’s quality objectives.
• Engagement of people: Competent, empowered, and engaged people at all levels throughout the organisation must enhance its capability to create and deliver value.
• Process approach: Consistent and predictable results are achieved more effectively and efficiently when activities are understood and managed as interrelated processes that function as a coherent system.
• Improvement: Successful organisations have an ongoing focus on improvement
• Evidence-based decision-making: Decisions based on analysing and evaluating data and information are more likely to produce desired results.
• Relationship management: For sustained success, an organisation manages its relationships with interested parties, such as suppliers.

​We are confident our approach to quality provides you, our clients, with better value for money while improving our service and accuracy. We see that as a win for both of us: our advantage is your advantage.